


On a Smaller Scale

by chlodobird



Series: The Dragon of Hell's Kitchen [15]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dragons, BAMF Karen Page, Baby Dragon, Because Fuck Marvel, Book Club, F/F, Gen, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Not Canon Compliant, dragon!Matt, it's just straight up, though really after a hundred thousand words of au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chlodobird/pseuds/chlodobird
Summary: These are some of the bits and bobs that I had for this au, before I ran out of energy for it. Still, they're kind of fun, and I liked rereading them! (especially the karen one haha) Enjoy!
Relationships: Karen Page/Natasha Romanov, Matt Murdock & Franklin "Foggy" Nelson & Karen Page, Matt Murdock & Peter Parker, Matt Murdock/Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Miles Morales & Matt Murdock, Miles Morales & Matt Murdock & Peter Parker
Series: The Dragon of Hell's Kitchen [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660564
Comments: 16
Kudos: 67





	1. Fragment One: Badass Ladies Being Gay

Nat: Ready for your coworkers to find out we’re dating?

Karen: hm

Karen: i suppose I could introduce you guys

Karen: why now though? Did something happen?

Nat: was out on a mission with clint last night and met your friend. He invited us to stop by sometime

Karen: i think i see what you’re getting at.

Nat: I’ll drop by and head straight over to your desk

Karen: oh, you could bring by the jacket I forgot at your place and pretend that’s why you came!

Nat: perfect. You’re an evil genius :)

Karen: hah he’s going to know you’re here as soon as you walk into the building. The ANTICIPATION, just for you to walk right past him??? This is going to be so fucking funny

Nat: oops the room is on fire, gotta go

Karen: See you!

The next day, the trio gathered around their small table to eat lunch in between clients, like usual. They were in the middle of chatting about one of their clients when Matt perked up. Karen grinned. He wasn’t subtle- someone interesting was heading towards them, and she had a pretty good idea who it was.

It only took another thirty seconds for the door to open.

Natasha sauntered in and made a beeline for Karen. “Hey, you left your jacket at my place.”

“Oh, thanks!” She glanced over at Matt, whose surprise was obvious.

“You two are dating?” Foggy blurted. “But Karen never introduces her dates to us!”

“That’s because it’s just been one girlfriend. This is Nat. We’ve been together for about two years,” Karen said casually.

Natasha offered her hand to Foggy, who shook it. “I’ve heard a lot about you two,” she said with a smile. “Matt, I’m holding out my hand to shake, at your ten o’clock.”

He managed to pull himself together long enough to shake Natasha’s hand. “Nice to meet you? Uh . . . does Karen know?”

“That I’m the Black Widow? Yes.”

Foggy’s jaw dropped. “You’re  _ the _ Black Widow? Holy shit.”

Matt groaned and sank into his chair. “And I’m an idiot.”

Foggy frowned. “Why?”

“After I told her and Hawkeye my identity, I said that she should meet Karen because it seemed like they would get along.” He turned to the spy. “How did you not start laughing last night?”

“I hide my reactions for a living,” Natasha said, amusement all over her face.

Karen nudged her shoulder and pointed across the room. “Pull up a chair.”

“Wait,” Matt said, his brain finally catching up after the series of revelations. “You said you’ve been dating for  _ two years _ ?”

“I already switched my perfume and soaps fairly regularly, and go on missions that often require leaving for a week at a time,” Natasha said with a shrug. “Turns out that combination makes it pretty easy to hide a relationship from someone with super senses. And there was a six month undercover assignment where we only texted.”

“Yeah, that would do it,” he sighed.

Foggy crossed his arms. “Forget super-smell and his nose crisis over there. Why wouldn’t you just tell us? It’s not like you would have had to come out in order to tell us you were dating Natasha, you already told us you were bi.”

“It was fun seeing how long I could keep it under the radar,” Karen said with a shrug.

Foggy whistled. “Apparently, however long you wanted. Damn.”

“You two are so gullible,” she said with a chuckle.

“How did you two even meet?” Matt asked.

“I keep tabs on all my friends. When I heard Peter was interning here, I figured Karen would be the easiest one to talk to,” Natasha admitted, guilt-free.

Karen picked up the story from there. “We got pretty close, and started dating.” Not the whole story, but there would be plenty of time for gossiping later.

_ January, 2017 _

_ Over two years ago _

The mission parameters were straightforward. Meet the target at her weekly book club. Engage the target in conversation. Ensure a healthy work environment for Peter.

Natasha smirked. It was going to be easy.

Page was chatting with another woman when Natasha entered the cafe, and she slipped a smile onto her face before walking up to the two.

"Hi! I'm Amy. I'm here for the book club?"

The second woman grinned back at her and said excitedly, "Welcome! It's good to get more members. Right now we only have five of us- well, six now! Oh, I'm Morgan."

"Karen," her target said, holding out a hand for her to shake. "We've been reading the Wrinkle in Time series, most recently. Have you read it?"

Of course. She knew they were reading it, so she had as well. "It's been a while," Natasha said, slipping some embarrassment into her voice. "But I remember it pretty well, it was one of my favorite books when I was younger."

Morgan brightened. "You can decide for us then! I think that the first line is dumb-"

"And I think that it's not!" Page said firmly.

"Um, what was it again?"

"It was a dark and stormy night.' See, I think it would be dumb if she wrote it today, but at the time, it hadn't been overused yet!"

"But just because it hadn't been overused yet doesn't mean it was good!"

"But it sets the scene and the mood really well!" Page said fiercely. She paused, with an expression Natasha recognized as trying to remember something, and continued with, "It's like, um. In Macbeth, the first scene is the witches, and the stage directions that start it off say that it's stormy out and then the witches enter. That's the same as A Wrinkle in Time! It's saying it's stormy, and then it moves on to talking about Meg!"

"You're saying that a kid's book is like Shakespeare?" Morgan said dubiously. "It's not that deep."

Her target raised an eyebrow. "Did you even read it? It's so smart."

"I kind of have to agree with Karen," Natasha said, shooting a sympathetic look at Morgan. "I think it's a good opening."

"Fine," she sighed. "Outvoted for now. But when the others get here, you're going down! I bet Nancy hated this book."

"Nancy hates anything weird. It's a good thing we're not reading Alice in Wonderland."

Morgan winced. "Okay, but to be fair, Alice in Wonderland isn't good."

"You're right, but that's not the point."

Natasha tilted her head. "What's wrong with Alice in Wonderland? I liked it." False. She'd never read it. She had a sneaking suspicion she would hate it, and never bothered to do more than look up a plot summary.

"It's just . . . boring," Page sighed. "You've got to either have a good plot, a good writing style, or good characters, and Alice in Wonderland didn't have any of those."

"In my opinion, writing style doesn't matter as much. I didn't finish reading East of Eden, because the characters and plot were terrible."

"But I loved East of Eden despite the characters and plot, because the writing style was gorgeous," Page finished.

"English nerd."

"Hey, I spend all day reading dry stuff. Sorry if I want to read something nice and pretty when I get home!"

"She burned down a barn, Karen!"

"What's East of Eden?" Natasha added, watching the bickering friends and making sure to show growing amusement on her face.

"It's a book by John Steinbeck," Page told her with a smile. "You should give it a shot! Although, maybe reread a Wrinkle in Time first. We're starting A Wind in the Door this week."

"There's a sequel? I don't think I ever read that one." Again, false. Natasha enjoyed reading A Wrinkle in Time enough that she finished the three following books in an afternoon.

"Yeah! It's fantastic, even better than the first one if I'm honest," Morgan said excitedly. "Oh, there's Nancy! We can start now!"

"What about Kendra and Anna?" Karen asked curiously.

"I don't know why Kendra's gone, she just texted me she wouldn't be able to make it, and Anna's visiting her mom this weekend to help her move."

Natasha turned to assess Nancy, and was greeted with the sight of a slightly older woman, who bustled over and announced, "We should read more books like this one."

She caught Karen and Morgan trading astonished looks, and the latter spoke up. "But we thought you hated books with weird stuff in it."

"There's a difference between weird and metaphysical," she said dismissively.

Natasha chatted with them throughout the meeting, and kept her eyes on Page surreptitiously. After the book club wrapped up, she tapped Page's shoulder. "Would, um. Would you be interested in grabbing lunch with me sometime?" she asked carefully.

Page hesitated. Strange. "Sounds good! Does Saturday work for you?"

"Yeah, how about at noon?"

"We can get sandwiches and eat in Central Park," Page offered.

"That sounds wonderful! I've been meaning to try to make more friends around here," Natasha replied. She poured gratitude into her voice and facial expressions, and grinned to herself. She would be able to guide the conversation to work easily, and from there, it wouldn't be hard to check that Peter was in a healthy work environment.

She'd do the same for any of the other Avengers- had already done the same, honestly. Even if they could take care of themselves, she still double checked. A little paranoia wasn't her worst habit. Not even close.

It took two weeks- four lunches- with Amy for Karen to start getting a weird feeling.

Something was off.

Amy was lovely- gorgeous, intelligent, bold. But as they kept meeting up, there was something bothering Karen. She wasn't sure what it was.

She even contemplated pulling away, but every time Karen picked up the phone to text . . . to say god knows what, she remembered Amy's smile, or Amy's laugh, or the way Amy lit up when Karen talked about the time she went to a renaissance faire dressed like a pirate and got into a sword fight, or-

Shit.

Karen wasn't an idiot. She knew what a crush felt like. But she had a gut feeling that Amy was hiding something big. But how could she ask Amy if she was hiding something without being a hypocrite?

She had her own secrets, and didn't intend to give them up to a woman she just met. So she kept meeting with Amy, and ignored her instinct. Hell, she had her gun if she needed, and she was thinking about asking Matt for self-defense lessons now that he had started teaching that little bug.

She would be fine.

She didn’t have to know everything.

Her paranoia fought her urge to grow closer to Amy, and lost.

It had only been three months since Amy first showed up at the book club when Karen finally plucked up the nerve to say something.

She poked at her sandwich and avoided Amy’s gaze. “So, I’ve been wondering. Um. Would you like to go on an actual date sometime? Have dinner or something?”

Karen glanced up in time to see guilt flash through Amy’s facial expression, and her eyes narrowed a little. Amy was definitely hiding something. Had to be.

“I . . .” Amy looked as if she was choosing her words carefully. “I can’t.”

Alright, plan B. “Then what are you hiding?”

Natasha frowned down at her plate. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She had one lunch with Karen and was satisfied that Peter was in a healthy workplace. But when the other woman had asked her to go out for lunch again . . . she said yes before she realized what she was doing. Then again. And again. And again.

Then Karen asked to go on a date. And she couldn’t. She didn’t want to start a relationship based on lies. She had gotten too used to having friends that knew her name, knew the basics of her past. Lying had become habit rather than a requirement, and she didn’t want to slip back into being forced to lie.

So she said no, and Karen’s face hardened.

She looked like she was searching for truth.

_ Shit. _

Okay.

What’s the worst that could happen?

She refused to let her brain follow that path, and leaned a little closer. “We shouldn’t do this here.” The park was far too public.

Karen frowned, like she’d had the same thought but come to a much different conclusion, and Natasha hid a wince. That must have sounded suspicious.

“We’ll go to my apartment,” she decided. Her voice was still cold, and Nat nodded wordlessly.

When they stood to leave, Karen hesitated, and gestured in front of her. “Lead the way. I’ll direct you.”

Natasha distantly registered a sting at the blonde’s mistrust, but most of her mind was preoccupied with what could have happened to make Karen so wary.

The walk was long enough to spin a few different theories, and Natasha unconsciously turned to the apartment building when they arrived.

Karen breathed in sharply, and spat, “How do you know where I live?”

Oops. “I looked it up.”

“How?”

She checked for people lingering on sidewalks and stoops, and kept an eye on three suspicious figures. Still safe enough to be vague. “I’m good at finding information.”

“Why did you look it up?”

“That’s part of a longer story.”

Karen glanced around, and Natasha saw the calculating look in her eyes. “Alright.” She tossed over her keys, and decided, “Keep going. I assume you know the apartment number.”

Nat masked the twinge of hurt she felt at the venom in her voice, and unlocked the door. Karen waited until she’d walked a few paces down the hallway before turning and locking the door, and together, the two women proceeded up the staircase.

When they finally reached the apartment, Nat stepped inside with a hint of trepidation. Normally she didn’t mind breaking cover, but this time . . . well, she didn’t want Karen to be angry about the lies.

She chose not to examine her reasons for that.

She heard a familiar click, and when she turned around, Karen had a gun trained on her chest, hands steady as a rock.

“Don’t come any closer, or I will shoot you. Tell me why you know where I live, and why you’ve been lying to me.”

“I am Natasha Romanoff, also known as the Black Widow.” She kept her voice calm, and continued without regard for the shock on Karen’s face. “Peter Parker has interned for Stark before, and I was here to investigate whether Nelson, Murdock & Page would be a healthy work environment. I researched both of the lawyers, and you-” was that a bit of fear on Karen’s face? “and decided that you would be the best one to give me information.”

She shook her head as Karen tried to speak, and continued, “I went to book club with the goal of asking you to grab lunch, so that I could subtly steer the conversation to work. Except . . . I enjoyed spending time with you. I meant to just leave after one book club and lunch, but I kept spending more time with you because I wanted to.”

Natasha stopped talking, and Karen was quiet as she processed. “So . . . You used me for information, and then accidentally became friends with me?”

“Yes.”

“Shit, that’s . . . that makes sense, actually. I knew something about you was off, I just didn’t want to pry. How much do you know about me?”

“I know your mother died and you put off college. Your brother died in a car crash, through no fault of yours, but your town blamed you. You went to college, were falsely accused of murder in a Union Allied scandal, and went to work for Nelson & Murdock. When it dissolved, you were a reporter, and were involved in a bomber situation. You and your friends came back together to restart the business.”

“Those are facts. I want to know what you  _ think _ .”

Natasha tilted her head. “Based on your caution with me and the steadiness of your hands, you’ve dealt with dangerous people before. You’ve been repeatedly connected with Castle but survived, so I suspect you two are friends, or at least allies.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A summary of this chapter: Karen is suspicious but is also a bi disaster. Natasha tries to be secretive but accidentally catches feelings.
> 
> Yes, Natasha is explaining everything to Karen but still lies to cover for peter/spider-man. She’s a ride-or-die friend (she’s def a hufflepuff i can and will defend this)
> 
> And wow, this one was hard to write. Natasha and Karen both have very different thought processes than I do, and I don’t think the narration was quite what I wanted it to be. I half-wish I edited this more thoroughly, but c'est la vie!!!! once it's on paper, it's not my problem :)


	2. Fragment Two: They Grow Up So Fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was glancing over my timeline and realized that Peter's going into college in this verse???? Big yikes. So I tried to dig up my memories of applying to college and uh. Clearly I failed at remembering the application process, bc I don't remember writing this, and in this, I never got past "uhhhhhhhh scholarships are important. References? Maybe?"

“Hey, Matt?”

He groaned, recognizing the I-need-something voice. “Yeah, Peter? What can I do for you?”

“Um, I need some advice,” the teen said hesitantly.

Fuck, why did they keep coming to him for advice? He didn’t sign up to be a mentor. He was only here to teach them how to beat people up. God.

“What is it?”

“I guess, it’s not really advice, more of a request.”

Weird. “What’s going on?”

“I was wondering if you could write a letter of recommendation for my college applications?”

Oh. That was it? “Of course I will. You’ve been working here for two years. You picked up legal work fast enough for us to start actually paying you, and you’ve got a great work ethic.”

“Thanks!” The relief was palpable.

“Out of curiosity, where are you applying?”

“Aunt May said to apply to four schools? So I looked at good biochem programs and decided to apply to Columbia, Cornell, NYU, and Queens College.”

Matt nodded thoughtfully. “Huh. You’re really getting older.”

“Miles is going to have to do all this next year,” Peter pointed out. “It’s not really out of nowhere.”

“I can’t believe it’s been, what, over a decade since I did all this shit?” Matt groaned. “Vigilantes just get younger and younger all the time.”

“To be fair, pretty sure Miles and I are some of the youngest vigilantes in New York, but I’m eighteen. I’m an adult.”

Matt snorted. “Kiddo, you haven’t even graduated yet. You’re not an adult until you cry over bills and/or taxes. You can’t even drive.”

“You can’t either!”

He gave Peter his best unimpressed look, and the teen relented. “Fine. I guess there’s probably some solid reasons for that. But in my defense, I live in  _ New York _ . When the fuck am I going to need to drive?”

Matt begrudgingly gave him some credit. “It’s not like any of us vigilante idiots leave New York.”

“Exactly!”


	3. Fragment Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt has sensory overload days. This was my attempt at writing it and then getting distracted and forgetting it existed until now.

It wasn't one of Matt's bad days. No, on days like that, he stayed in bed, listening and not listening to New York. On the bad days, he called in sick and lost himself in the noise, just another leaf in a forest of sounds and smells and senses he didn't have words for. On the worse days, he curled up in a corner of his apartment and hurt until he fell asleep, exhausted.

The only reason Matt got away with being Daredevil for so long was because Foggy was used to Matt's overstimulation and unexpected sick days. Oh, Matt's wincing when he goes to grab something? Must be a headache. Slip him some Tylenol, he'll insist on working through it. Oh, he came in late? Probably just one of those days, until it wasn't. Make sure he takes it easy for the rest of the day, take most of the work. If possible, make him take a nap! Didn't come in at all? Check on him, for sure, but nothing unusual there. 

(And after the reveal? The sudden understanding in Foggy's heartbeat when Matt explained how his senses caused his bad days made his head hurt a little less)

After Foggy started spending the night at Matt's place (and after he invested in a nice pair of blackout curtains to combat the pesky billboard), Matt's bad days got slightly easier. Instead of having to call Foggy and explain that he was sick, Foggy could tell at a glance and take care of everything.

As a rule, Matt hated getting help, but . . . he could make an exception. For Foggy only, of course.

Foggy was a godsend, really. If Matt was lucid enough to focus on how to string together words, he could tell Foggy whether to stay or go, and he would listen. Some days, Foggy texted Karen that they were both staying home, and the two of them would lie in bed and Foggy would tether Matt to the apartment with whispers and a steady, warm heartbeat. Other days, the worse days, Matt was too prickly to be touched and wanted as much control over his environment as possible (difficult, when his radar was staticky with extra noise). On those days, Foggy left Matt alone in the apartment and worked twice as hard as normal at the office.

On bad days, Matt didn't eat or drink until Foggy stayed over. Food was still too much- he tried to stomach some plain rice at Foggy's request, once, but didn't make it more than a bite in. Still, Foggy could generally manage to persuade him to drink a little water, nowadays.


	4. Fragment Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote like four different beginnings to this and eventually just scrapped them all but if I can't put this in a story with a bunch of other finished chunks, where CAN I put it????

Peter had stories.

He knew about how Uncle Ben and his dad interacted growing up. He knew about how his parents met. Aunt May and Uncle Ben had sat him down in second grade and showed him all the branches on his family tree and he knew a bit about his grandparents- on his dad’s side, at least.

But they were just stories to him.

He never knew any of his family. He just had Uncle Ben and Aunt May. And they were enough, really! He loved them. But he still wished for more than stories.

He wished he was  _ part _ of the family he’d been told about.

When he was little, Uncle Ben had explained his half-forgotten traditions. Esther and her intelligence. Moses and his faith. Days of atonement and celebrations of light and lands of milk and honey.

By the time the stories reached Peter, the Parkers weren’t practicing Jews. Hell, they hadn’t been for a couple generations. Ben remembered observing the major holidays, but he stopped as a child when his mother died.

Peter had a . . . disconnect. Ben Parker was Jewish. Always had been, and he called himself Jewish even when he hadn’t practiced the religion in decades. Richard Parker kept his faith, or so Peter was told, but Peter felt a twinge of guilt whenever he thought about it in relation to himself.

Uncle Ben’s parents were Jewish, and practiced their faith.

Uncle Ben was Jewish until the day he died.

But what does that make Peter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> am i lowkey projecting?? yes. but this is my fic and i can project if i want!!!! That's part of why there were so many drafts though- combining what my experience of "damn i wish i knew more about my Jewish family" with what fits Peter's very tragic background was tricky, and honestly, if I was going to turn this into a full-length one shot, there would be a bunch more drafts to get that balance. Still it's been a while since I've consistently written for this fandom, and I'm ready to move on. the next and final chapter is my second favorite of the whole batch, thoguh, so at least there's something to look forward to!


	5. Fragment Five: Baby!!!! Baby Dragon!!!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's better than one dragon? TWO dragons! what's better than two dragons??? THREE GENERATIONS OF DRAGON. In one room.

Matt grinned at Peter and Miles. “You two ready?”

“Hell yeah!” Peter said cheerfully. “This is so much better than all the other shit I have to do.”

“Remember, they’re high-tech weapons dealers, so be prepared for some fancy alien shit.” The back of the truck was giving off crazy amounts of energy.

They both nodded, and Matt led them into the fray.

He took out one guard before they even noticed the trio of vigilantes, and rushed forward to the next one. He shouted in alarm, and the others pulled out guns. Matt sighed imperceptibly and dodged the bursts of energy. They were even easier to track than regular bullets, and he and the other two knocked out the last of the arms dealers in record time.

Peter opened the back of the trunk and groaned. “There’s so much here.”

Miles peered in, and shook his head. “This is going to take all night to destroy.”

Recently, with the surge in alien weaponry, they’d been wrecking any shipments they found. They couldn’t give it to the police, and none of them trusted the Avengers enough to give them advanced weaponry- well, even more weapons to add to what they already had. When Peter had time, he dug through the weapons, finding stuff that could be repurposed and then gave it to the Avengers, but too often the salvaging was cut short.

Tonight, something was different.

“Guys, there’s something in there. It’s not a weapon, it’s just kind of . . . warm,” Matt said. He hopped into the van and dug through the piles of metal. “It’s here somewhere.”

Matt tilted his head and moved deeper into the van. It was here somewhere, and he was going to find it.

Peter coughed lightly behind him. “Uh, buddy, you sure you’re not just hearing a random gun?”

He ignored the teen and honed in on the object. He finally set aside one last gun and picked it up. It was round and warm, and it kind of felt like a rock? But only on the outside. Matt went to set his ear against it to listen to it better, but-

“Is that an  _ egg _ ?” Peter said in surprise.

Matt tilted his head. There was the heartbeat, too fast and quiet for him to initially pick up on. “Yeah. It sure is,” he said lightly. “I’m keeping it.”

“What kind of egg is it?” Miles asked.

Matt didn’t even have to think before replying, “A dragon.”

Miles and Peter both sounded surprised, but Matt nodded decisively to himself. His egg now. Foggy was going to love it.

Matt gestured for the spiders to step back (they dragged the unconscious criminals with them) and shifted into a dragon. He kept his claws curled around the egg whole he incinerated the truck and melted the high-tech weapons, and wondered about how warm a dragon egg should be. He didn’t know if it was just the comparison to the flames swirling over melted metal, but the egg felt a little too cold.

When they had finished destroying the weapons, Matt switched back into his human form and grinned at the other two vigilantes. “Come on, kiddos, we’re going to church.”

They made their way back into Hell’s Kitchen and Matt led them straight to Sister Maggie. When she turned around, she sighed. “Really, Matthew? An egg?”

“I found it,” Matt said defensively. He hugged the egg a little closer, protective of it, and Sister Maggie took a step closer to inspect it.

“You’re going to need to keep it close and keep your body temperature up. Dragons are warmer than people.”

“Will it be human shaped or dragon shaped?” Peter piped up.

“Dragon, for a little while,” she explained. “I was human-shaped to be with Jack, so Matt was human shaped when he was born. The parents of this little hatchling were obviously both dragons.”

“How long will it be an egg?” Miles asked.

“I don’t know how old it is. Dragon eggs can lay dormant for ages, but once it decides to wake up, it takes about a month to hatch.”

Matt took his mask off and pressed an ear against the shell. “I don’t think it’s dormant anymore.”

Peter sounded excited when he said, “We’re going to get to see a baby dragon!”

“How old will it be before it can change into a human?” Matt asked.

She hummed for a second while she thought. “You mentioned you knew how to contact a Mind dragon. Just ask her to help the hatchling switch forms once it’s a few weeks old.”

“Um, you’re not going to keep this random baby, right?” Miles said hesitantly.

Matt squinted down at it. “No, Foggy and I don’t want kids right now.”

Miles’ heartbeat spiked, and Matt turned to look at him. “You know someone?”

“Well . . . maybe.”

“Who?”

The teen shuffled in place. “My parents are talking about fostering kids now that I’m in high school and I pretty much do my own thing.”

Matt tilted his head thoughtfully. “And they’re good parents?”

Miles nodded energetically, and Matt shrugged. “Can’t hurt to ask.” He turned to Sister Maggie. “Could you please write a list of whatever I need to know to keep this egg alive, and email it to me?”

“This is going to go so badly,” she said with a sigh.

Matt gave her his best scowl and tugged his helmet back on. “Let’s get out of here, Thing One, Thing Two. It’s seven in the morning in Norway.”

The heartbeats of both Spider-Man got faster, and Miles said excitedly, “We get to see Heather?”

Matt explained as they left the building in favor of a nearby roof. “I want to make sure we’re not stealing a stolen baby before we make arrangements. She knows how to contact most of the dragons on Earth.”

He dug his burner phone out of his pocket and dialed. Luckily, she liked to wake up early to feed her chickens. “Hi, Daredevil!” she said cheerfully.

“Heather, have you heard of any dragons missing an egg? It’s, um.” He glanced over at Peter. “What color is it?”

“Green.”

“It’s green.”

The line was quiet for a second. “You found a green egg?”

“Yeah, some arms dealers had it. It’s not dormant, it’s awake.”

“Shit. Yeah, um, one of our dragons died a few years ago. Her husband kept her egg but it stayed asleep. He died when Asgard was destroyed, but I saved the egg. A month ago it went missing.”

“Did . . .” Matt hesitated, and forced himself to ask, “Did you want it back?”

“Matt, it woke up for you,” she said gently. “You don’t have to raise it, but you need it nearby. Give it to someone you know in New York.”

He sighed in relief. “Alright. Just wanted to check I wasn’t keeping someone else’s baby.”

“Let me know when it hatches! I’ll wait a few weeks and then come help it change into a human form.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write a baby dragon because the mental image of the Defenders trying to take care of a baby dragon was too much of a temptation (and then I only finished the setup and not any actual interactions???? oh well). However, Matt is a disaster and cannot be trusted with any children under age ten. Thus, my conundrum: who the fuck is going to raise this hatchling, while still keeping them close enough that Matt can safely get attached and be a cool uncle????  
> My original plan was to let Claire and Luke adopt the hatchling together but then I remembered that Claire is a young nurse who’s perpetually done with this shit and is too busy for a kid, and I’ve never watched Luke Cage so I have no idea how to write him as a main character. None of these disaster vigilantes are qualified to raise children!!! Colleen and Danny are in a happy, stable relationship in my verse (fuck all of iron fist season 2 except that awkward family dinner. that can stay.) but they’re so young and dumb!  
> So I started thinking about the side characters. Maybe Rio and Jeff want a second kid?? I wasn’t sure until I remembered- in the comics, when Miles is in high school, his parents have a second kid! A baby! When Miles is in high school!!!!! The timing is so perfect. Whenever I can use a comics concept to fix a plot issue in my fics, it’s so fucking rad. So here, instead of Miles having a baby sister, Miles has a baby dragon sister.  
> And with that, this verse is done!!!! I definitely wish I'd gotten to a hundred thousand words, but honestly I don't wish it enough to go add more to anything. What'd done is done, and I'm ready to put this out of my mind to start some fresh fics!!!! See you again sometime :)


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